Electrical Resistivity of Liquid Sodium, Liquid Lithium, and Dilute Liquid Sodium Solutions

Abstract

The three factors of atomic size, ion core potential, and charge, which contribute to the increment in electrical resistivity produced by solutes in metallic solutions, have been separated and experimentally evaluated in liquid sodium. The results may be expressed in a semiempirical relationship defining the increment in resistivity of a monovalent solution, Δρ=0.063 | Δ Atomic Number | +0.53 (ΔV/V)², μohm cm/at. %, where ΔV/V is the fractional difference in atomic volume of solute and solvent and the first term involves the absolute value of the difference in atomic number of sodium and the solutes lithium, potassium, cesium, rubidium, silver, and gold.